Sydney Water has joined the alliance of infrastructure leaders who are working to better understand the relationship between community engagement and infrastructure project delivery. This research program has come about through the Australian National University’s ground-breaking Next Generation Engagement Program at the Institute for Infrastructure in Society (I2S).
The research program, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, seeks to understand the relationship between communities and infrastructure projects. It aims to identify and promote best practices and to improve community outcomes from major infrastructure delivery.
“We’re delighted to be able to work with leading practitioners from Sydney Water to capture what they are learning about the planning and delivery of water infrastructure projects,” said Institute Director, Professor Sara Bice. “In particular, we are interested in studying the further development and testing of our flagship Infrastructure Engagement Excellence Standards and supporting tools.”
“Together, we will complete a set of tools that supports best practice engagement for the Australian infrastructure sector.”
What does this customer engagement research program seek to achieve?
Over the coming three years, Sydney Water will play host to I2S researchers. It will also work with other industry partners to help shed light on how healthy community/proponent relationships can impact major project delivery for the better.
General Manager Customer and Stakeholder Engagement, Stuart Wallace, said the partnership will help Australia’s largest water utility continue to put community and stakeholders at the heart of decision-making.
“Sydney Water has an impressive pipeline of projects in the next ten years to meet the demand of growth and the changing climate,” Wallace said.
“The partnership with Next Generation Engagement Program will help us understand the cumulative impact of these works and how we perform to provide the best outcomes for our customers, stakeholders and industry partners,” Wallace said.
Sydney Water joins industry leaders in this work, including the Victorian Government, the Queensland Government, the South Australian Government, Lendlease, Transurban, Melbourne Water and the G20 Global Infrastructure Hub.
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